The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.

Radio-Lists Home Now on BBC 4 Contact

RADIO-LISTS: BBC FOUR
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/



SATURDAY 28 MAY 2016

SAT 19:00 Francesco's Venice (b0078ssj)
Sex

Francesco da Mosto continues his story of Venice with its most outrageous period of partying and licentiousness. This is the age of Casanova, the age of the courtesan - when Venice was the red-light district of Europe, attracting rich and hopeful dandies from across the continent.

Ostensibly the young men would come in search of art - and there was plenty for them, with Vivaldi, Canaletto and Canova at work in the city creating art on a scale never before seen. These were artists who responded directly to their public - Vivaldi churning out score after score as tourist-patrons demanded them, Canaletto painting the most upmarket postcards of the age for the growing number of rich visitors to the city, and Canova taking the human figure in marble to a level of perfection not seen since the time of Michelangelo.

Yet storm clouds were gathering and for the Venetians who saw them coming it could only seem as though the wrath of God was about to descend upon the city. The city had grown decadent and careless of its security. Guaranteed a safe haven for a thousand years by the hidden sandbanks of the lagoon, now new technology gave the enemies of Venice long-distance guns that could hit the city from beyond the shallows.

A new monster was rising in Europe - Napoleon Bonaparte, who saw Venice as rich pickings with which to fund his revolution. He would bring disaster to the city beyond any other it had known in its thousand-year history.


SAT 20:00 Hidden Killers (b07chyly)
The Post-War Home

Dr Suzannah Lipscomb explores the time when British people embraced modern design for the first time after years of austerity and self-denial. The look and feel of the postwar 1950s home - a 'modern' world of moulded plywood furniture, fibreglass, plastics and polyester - had its roots in the innovative materials discovered during World War II. In fact, no other war before or since has had such a profound effect on the technologies of our current life. This bright new era encompassed a host of social changes including higher living standards and improved technologies, but - as Suzannah discovers - there were also unexpected dangers lurking throughout the changing home.


SAT 21:00 The Disappearance (b05rd3lm)
Episode 1

French thriller series. When teenager Lea Morel does not return home from a music festival, her desperate parents contact the police. Lieutenant Molina, freshly transferred from Paris, uncovers areas of Lea's life that her family knows nothing about.

In French with English subtitles.


SAT 21:55 The Disappearance (b05rd3lp)
Episode 2

Lea's father Julien is in police custody for lying about his alibi and refusing to give his actual whereabouts on the night of his daughter's disappearance. Molina and Camille discover that Lea has been introduced to single-seater racing, but wonder how she managed to pay for lessons.

In French with English subtitles.


SAT 22:40 BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (b07dk8j5)
2016

Mumford & Sons

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend comes from the historic and picturesque setting of Powderham Castle in Kenton, near Exeter. Headliners Mumford & Sons take to the main stage in front of 50,000 fans and bring to a close the first day of Radio 1's flagship event and one of Europe's biggest free festivals.


SAT 23:40 Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10 (b01nwfxs)
Documentary chronicling our ever-changing love affair with the British singles chart on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary. From the first NME chart in 1952, via Pick and Top of the Pops to home-taping the Radio One chart show and beyond, we have measured out our lives to a wonderful churn of pop driven, unbeknownst to us, by a clandestine world of music biz hustle. Featuring contributions by 60 years of BBC chart custodians from David Jacobs to Reggie Yates, chart fans Grace Dent and Pete Paphides and music biz veterans Jon Webster and Rob Dickins.


SAT 01:10 Tales from the Tour Bus: Rock 'n' Roll on the Road (b05rjc9c)
Rock legend and tour bus aficionado Rick Wakeman takes us on a time-travelling trip through the decades in this first-hand account of rockers on the road from the late 1950s to the 80s and beyond.

It's an often bumpy and sometimes sleepless ride down the A roads and motorways of the UK during the golden age of rock 'n' roll touring - a secret history of transport cafes, transit vans, B&Bs, sleepless roadies and of loved ones left at home or, on one occasion, by the roadside. And it's also a secret history of audiences both good and bad, and the gigs themselves - from the early variety package to the head clubs, the stadiums and the pubs.

This is life in the British fast lane as told by Rick and the bands themselves, a film about the very lifeblood of the rock 'n' roll wagon train. With members of Dr Feelgood, Suzi Quatro, The Shadows, The Pretty Things, Fairport Convention, Happy Mondays, Aswad, Girlschool, The Damned and many more.


SAT 02:10 Top of the Pops (b07ckwvv)
Simon Bates presents the weekly pop chart show, originally broadcast on 29 October 1981. Includes appearances from Altered Images, Trevor Walters, Haircut 100, Squeeze, Olivia Newton John, OMD, BA Robertson & Maggie Bell, and Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin. Also includes a dance sequence by Legs & Co.


SAT 02:45 Top of the Pops (b07cl0cn)
Peter Powell presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 5 November 1981. Includes appearances from The Dukes, Jets, ABC, Modern Romance, The Police, Rush, Julio Iglesias, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, and The Four Tops.


SAT 03:25 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sjk)
Episode 2

Serious and sincere they may have been, never cracking a smile where a tortured, artistic look would do, but this tranche of 80s pop stars know how to make that look work - Eurythmics, Spandau Ballet, Phil Collins, Fine Young Cannibals, Tears for Fears, Suzanne Vega and Simply Red.



SUNDAY 29 MAY 2016

SUN 19:00 Playing Beethoven's Fifth (b07dprl0)
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique perform the world's most iconic piece of classical music, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Bringing out all the revolutionary fervour that Gardiner believes underpins the work and performing on period instruments of Beethoven's day, this performance brings us an authentic re-imagination of the sounds Beethoven's original audiences would have heard.

Shot on location in St John's Smith Square, the performance looks and sounds stunning.

Ahead of the performance, Gardiner and the principals of the orchestra discuss the issues in trying to breathe new life into such a famous piece and how their period instruments transform the symphony's sound.


SUN 19:45 Mozart Uncovered (b07dwrgr)
Arias

Conductor Charles Hazlewood examines arias and duets from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute with soprano Camilla Tilling, tenor Toby Spence and baritone Andrew Shore.


SUN 20:00 Ballrooms and Ballerinas: Dance at the BBC (b06sg7zj)
Strictly Come Dancing - today one of the most popular shows on television - is the latest manifestation of the BBC's enduring love affair with dance. Whether it was profiling stars such as Margot Fonteyn, reluctantly teaching us how to do the twist or encouraging us to dance like John Travolta, the BBC's cameras were there to capture every move and every step. From ballet to ballroom and beyond, this is Dance at the BBC.


SUN 21:00 BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (b07dpv33)
2016

Coldplay

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend comes from the historic and picturesque setting of Powderham Castle in Kenton, near Exeter. Coldplay play live as local boy Chris Martin leads the band in a triumphant return to the main stage at Radio 1's flagship event in front of 50,000 fans, bringing to a close the second and final day.


SUN 22:00 Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups (b05q472d)
Mark Radcliffe presents a look at the highs and lows of band life - the creative tension that produces great music and the pressures that come with success and fame, and pull most bands apart. Radcliffe lifts the lid on the main reasons why bands break up and the secrets of bands that manage to stay together.


SUN 23:00 Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons Side by Side: The Interview (b07dpfmg)
In this exclusive television interview, Kirsty Wark meets two of the biggest stars of the modern art world, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons.

The occasion is a major new exhibition of Koons's work collected and curated by Hirst at his new gallery in London's Vauxhall. In an intimate and revealing interview, Hirst and Koons talk about how they first met and fell in love with each other's work.

Both started out as rebels who provoked outrage. Now they are part of the art establishment and among the richest artists in the world. But, as Wark discovers, they retain their passionate belief in the power of art.


SUN 23:30 The Last Journey of the Magna Carta King (b052hrdd)
Ben Robinson retraces the dramatic last days of King John, England's most disastrous monarch, and uncovers the legend of his lost treasure.

John is famous for accepting Magna Carta, which inspired our modern democracy. But ten days him from ruler of an empire to sudden death and left the kingdom in ruins.

Ben follows in the footsteps of the king's epic last journey, from the treacherous marshes of East Anglia, through Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, to his final resting place in Worcester. He is joined by medieval historian professor Stephen Church.

Together they examine the truth behind the legend that has lived on for 800 years. Did the crown jewels really end up in the mud of the Wash? Was the king poisoned? Does he deserve his reputation as our most disastrous monarch?

Thanks to unique documents, we can tell this epic tale in the king's own words. Not only can we get into the mind of the Magna Carta king, we can reveal in fantastic detail how and where he travelled.

Ben reveals what happened when treasure seekers attempted to find the king's lost jewels with the help of a diviner. And using the latest technology reveals how we can actually see back in time to reveal the landscape as it would have looked when King John made his last journey 800 years ago.


SUN 00:30 World War II: 1945 and the Wheelchair President (b05vlzsn)
David Reynolds re-examines the war leadership of American president Franklin Roosevelt.

At the height of war, Roosevelt inspired millions with stirring visions of a new and better postwar world, but it was a world he probably knew he would never see. He was commander-in-chief of the greatest military power the world had known, and yet his paralysis from polio made him powerless to accomplish even the most minor physical tasks. Few Americans knew the extent of his disability.

In this intimate biography set against the epic of World War II, Reynolds reveals how Roosevelt was burdened by secrets about his failing health and strained marriage that, if exposed, could have destroyed his presidency. Enigmatic, secretive and with a complicated love life, America's wheelchair president was racing to shape the future before the past caught up with him.

Weaving together the conduct of the war in Europe and the Pacific, the high politics of Roosevelt's diplomacy with Stalin and Churchill, and the entangled stories of the women who sustained the president in his last year, Reynolds explores the impact of Roosevelt's growing frailty on the war's endgame and the tainted peace that followed.


SUN 02:00 Going Going Gone: Nick Broomfield's Disappearing Britain (b07chym0)
Two iconic British buildings are threatened with demolition and the intrepid Nick Broomfield is on the case. In a pair of documentaries, Broomfield profiles the Wellington Rooms in Liverpool and the Coal Exchange in Cardiff.

The Wellington Rooms, built in 1815 by Edmund Aikin, was originally the social hub for the super-rich, slave traders, businessmen and the elite. The prime minister William Gladstone's family, themselves wealthy slave owners, invested heavily in this magnificent building with the most intricate detailing and proportions. A Wedgwood ceiling and sprung dance floor, with classical columns, create a building of love and light.

Despite the depression in Liverpool's fortunes, it's a building that has brought enormous happiness to many different people over a couple of centuries. Countless people seem to have fallen in love and met their future partners in the assembly room. Now in a rundown state of faded glory, the question is - what to do with the Wellington Rooms?

The Coal Exchange in Cardiff, built in 1883 by Edward Seward, is a magnificent celebration of the industry of coal and its immense wealth. A glass-ceilinged exchange room with galleries on three floors and a unique lowered floor are a remarkable monument to this time.

Now in serious neglect, the whole building, the size of a city block, faces demolition. It signifies the serious lack of resourcefulness on the part of Cardiff Council to celebrate and regenerate not only this building but the whole area. The once great Butetown Docks and the magnificent buildings surrounding the Coal Exchange have also been allowed to crumble and disintegrate. Rather than redevelop the docks in a way that they have been so wonderfully done in Liverpool, the docks in Cardiff have been filled in. Magnificent warehouses have been torn down, and the whole history of coal and the uniqueness of this area have been almost obliterated.


SUN 03:00 Ballrooms and Ballerinas: Dance at the BBC (b06sg7zj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



MONDAY 30 MAY 2016

MON 19:00 World News Today (b07d7gg2)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06ynxk8)
Series 1

Autumn

Autumn is the season when the landscape is at its most colourful. Iolo Williams finds himself in the midst of a flock of thousands of fieldfares arriving from Europe to escape the colder continent. They gorge themselves on berries in trees surrounding the smallest church in Wales. In the Usk Valley, bats feed before they hibernate in caves, and migrating ducks gather on Talybont Reservoir, ready for winter. Underground, cave spiders are lurking, and sea trout are heading upstream to spawn in the rivers.


MON 20:00 Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British (b07ckwvx)
The Terrace

Dan Cruickshank explores our love affair with the terrace - the home that more Britons live in than any other. We love it because it has proved brilliantly adaptable, encompassing the Victorian parlour and modern open-plan living with equal ease.

Dan is in Toxteth, Liverpool 8. Famous for the riots that ripped it apart in the 1980s, Toxteth has a far richer and more varied history than that one tragic episode. Liverpool was the ultimate Victorian boom town, turned by trade and industry from provincial powerhouse into the second city of empire. 100,000 terraced houses were built to accommodate its vast workforce, with huge numbers in Toxteth. From a high of Victorian industry and immigration to a low of postwar decline, Toxteth's terraces have seen it all - even the 2015 Turner Prize, awarded for their remarkable 21st-century regeneration.


MON 21:00 Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather (b07d7mqg)
Episode 2

Alok Jha investigates how modern weather forecasting was born amid the horrific catastrophes of the 20th century, as meteorologists helped fight two world wars and tried to predict natural disasters across the globe.

He tells the story of Lewis Fry Richardson, a visionary scientist who laid the foundations of modern computer-based weather forecasting in between shifts as an ambulance driver in the trenches of World War I.

In Norway, Alok sees how meteorologists managed to unravel the mysteries of weather fronts and in India he sees how famines, which cost millions of lives, spurred meteorologists to try to understand climate on a global scale.

Alok investigates how, during World War II, weather forecasters working from a secret camp outside London under the most testing wartime conditions were called on to make the most important weather forecast in history - they were asked to predict if conditions would be good enough for the D-Day invasion to proceed. He sees how a family operating a tiny weather station on the west coast of Ireland became a key part of this extraordinary drama, as they provided weather readings that were vital to the outcome of the war.


MON 22:00 Catch Me if You Can (b0074g3y)
Steven Spielberg movie based on a true story.

When high school student Frank Abagnale Jr's parents decide to get a divorce, he runs away with just $25 to his name. Determined to get back the money his destitute father owes the IRS, he starts cashing false cheques. Before too long, Frank earns well over a million dollars and starts impersonating airline pilots, eventually becoming the subject of a worldwide manhunt led by the FBI's Carl Hanratty, who is determined to get his man.


MON 00:15 Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups (b05q472d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


MON 01:15 Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War (b01c301b)
Raising Arms

Military historian Saul David looks at how generals have struggled to kit out their armies for battle.


MON 02:15 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06ynxk8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:45 Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather (b07d7mqg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 31 MAY 2016

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b07d7ggh)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dtp4b)
The Peak Express

Julia Bradbury has her backpack on to explore the great outdoors. Julia's walks follow the old tracks, overgrown cuttings and ancient viaducts of Britain's lost rail empire, visiting disused lines across England, Scotland and Wales. Through stunning landscapes and urban backstreets, each contrasting walk has a unique story to tell, offering Julia a window into industrial Britain and how the rise and fall of the railways has altered lives and localities across the country.

Julia begins her exploration of Britain's lost rail empire in Derbyshire, the heart of the Peak District, with a walk along the popular Monsal Trail. Limestone cliffs and gorges abound, not to mention the tunnels and soaring viaducts of the Midland Railway - one of the most dramatic and unlikely main lines ever built.


TUE 20:00 Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather (b07d7mqg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


TUE 21:00 Revolution and Romance: Musical Masters of the 19th Century (b07d9rwv)
We Can Be Heroes

In the first programme, Suzy Klein tells the story of a creative outpouring unrivalled before or since - the 19th century witnessed the emergence of composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Chopin, Wagner, Verdi and Liszt, just to name a few of the stellar array whose genius we venerate to this day.

As the aristocracy weakened following the French Revolution, the industrial revolution created new wealth and the middle classes flourished, Suzy shows how it was possible for composers and performers to become the superstars of their age, no longer the servants of kings and princes.

Masters like Paganini and Liszt were idolised, commanded immense fees and had a following as adoring as any of the rock stars and singers of today. Composers tore up the rulebooks, embraced the spirit of Romanticism and poured out their souls in their bold and experimental work. And, freed from the chains of aristocratic patronage, they became entrepreneurs too, organising and profiting from their concerts and winning unprecedented wealth, fame and status.

But with commercial success came a very modern backlash - artistic credibility versus X Factor-style fame. Which would win out? Or could one coexist with the other? As music gained increasing power and influence as the art form of the 19th century, composers started to believe that they could change the world... and remarkably, they really did.


TUE 22:00 Seven Ages of Britain (b00qn322)
Age of Conquest

David Dimbleby tells the story of Britain through its art and treasure. The first part of the chronicle begins with the Roman invasion and ends with the Norman Conquest.

David travels throughout Britain in search of the greatest works of art from the time: the mosaics of Bignor Roman Villa, the burial treasure of Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon poetry and Alfred the Great's jewel. He also goes abroad, throughout Europe, to find objects either made in Britain, or which tell us something about our past.

In Aphrodisias, Turkey, he finds the oldest image of Britannia; in Florence, a beautiful illuminated Bible made by Northumbrian monks in the 8th century; in Normandy, the Bayeux Tapestry, now believed to have been made by English nuns. He ends at the Tower of London, now seen as a symbol of Britishness, but originally built by William the Conqueror to subdue the people of England.


TUE 23:00 Natural World (b00xxf9f)
2010-2011

Miracle in the Marshes of Iraq

It's the largest and most ambitious habitat recreation project ever known - to bring back to life one of the world's greatest marshlands. And it's happening in Iraq.

Considered to be the original Garden of Eden, the marshes were once Iraq's wildlife jewel, where man and nature thrived for 5,000 years. But in the 1990s, Saddam Hussein drained these gigantic wetlands and turned them into a desert, destroying a home to thousands of people and millions of birds.

Donning his body armour, film-maker David Johnson travels to the Mesopotamian marshes to follow the work of Azzam Alwash, the visionary Iraqi engineer at the centre of this extraordinary scheme to reflood hundreds of miles of desert and bring back life to the sands. This is a view of Iraq the world never sees, a world of huge reed beds and vast flocks of birds that fill the sky.


TUE 00:00 Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails (b00drtpj)
Ian Hislop brings his customary humour, analysis and wit to the notorious Beeching Report of 1963, which led to the closure of a third of the nation's railway lines and stations and forced tens of thousands of people into the car and onto the road.

Was author Dr Richard Beeching little more than Genghis Khan with a slide rule, ruthlessly hacking away at Britain's rail network in a misguided quest for profitability, or was he the fall guy for short-sighted government policies that favoured the car over the train?

Ian also investigates the fallout of Beeching's plan, discovering what was lost to the British landscape, communities and ways of life when the railway map shrank, and recalls the halcyon days of train travel, celebrated by John Betjeman.

Ian travels from Cornwall to the Scottish borders, meeting those responsible and those affected and questioning whether such brutal measures could be justified. Knowing what we know now, with trains far more energy efficient and environmentally sound than cars, perhaps Beeching's plan was the biggest folly of the 1960s?


TUE 01:00 The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour (b04mgxxx)
Liberty, Diversity, Depravity

In the middle of the 18th century - in England - an entirely surprising thing happened. Out of the Age of Enlightenment and Reason a monster was born - a Gothic obsession with monsters, ghouls, ghosts and things that go bump in the night. From restrained aristocratic beginnings to pornographic excesses, the Gothic revival came to influence popular art, architecture and literature.


TUE 02:00 Pugin: God's Own Architect (b01b1z45)
Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin is far from being a household name, yet he designed the iconic clock tower of Big Ben as well as much of the Palace of Westminster. The 19th-century Gothic revival that Pugin inspired, with its medieval influences and soaring church spires, established an image of Britain which still defines the nation. Richard Taylor charts Pugin's extraordinary life story and discovers how his work continues to influence Britain today.


TUE 03:00 Revolution and Romance: Musical Masters of the 19th Century (b07d9rwv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 01 JUNE 2016

WED 19:00 World News Today (b07d7ggv)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dwflf)
Discovering Snowdonia

Julia walks along the stunning Mawddach estuary in north Wales. The area between Dolgellau and the coastal resort of Barmouth is one of the least visited parts of Snowdonia, but in the 1860s it received a great rush of holidaymakers, taking advantage of the new railway that connected the valley to the cities of England.


WED 20:00 Hidden Killers (b03l7nl8)
New Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home

Suzannah Lipscomb takes us back to the late Victorian era when cities were expanding and mass consumerism took hold. But from the food they ate to the clothes they wore and the new products that thrilled them, the Victorians were surrounding themselves with killers. What made taking a bath and drinking milk potentially so dangerous? And how did the Victorian woman turn herself into a walking fire hazard?

The domestic horrors of home life in the 19th century and the terrible consequences are laid bare, revealing how the Victorian ideal of 'safe as houses' was far from the reality.


WED 21:00 Ben Building: Mussolini, Monuments and Modernism (b07d7nj9)
Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini.

His travels take him to Rome, Milan, Genoa, the new town of Sabaudia and the vast military memorials of Redipuglia and Monte Grappa.

When it comes to the buildings of the fascist era, Meades discovers a dictator who couldn't dictate, with Mussolini caught between the contending forces of modernism and a revivalism that harked back to ancient Rome. The result was a variety of styles that still influence architecture today.

Along the way, Meades ponders on the nature of fascism, the influence of the Futurists, and Mussolini's love of a fancy uniform.


WED 22:30 Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint (b06714yz)
Andrew Marr discovers the untold story of Winston Churchill's lifelong love for painting and reveals the surprising ways in which his private hobby helped shape his public career as politician and statesman, even playing an unexpected part in his role as wartime leader.

Marr is himself a committed amateur painter and art has played an important role in his recovery from a serious stroke in 2013. His fascination with the healing powers of art fuels a journey that opens a new perspective on one of Britain's most famous men.

Andrew travels to the south of France and Marrakech, where Churchill loved to paint, and discovers how his serious approach to the craft of painting led to friendships with major British artists of the 20th century. He finds out how a single painting in the 1940s may have influenced the course of the Second World War, and meets Churchill's descendants to discover what his family felt about a private hobby that helped keep him sane through his wilderness years. And he discovers how, 50 years after Churchill's death, his art is being taken more seriously than ever before, with one painting being sold for almost £2 million in 2014.


WED 23:30 Natural World (b00tcf7z)
2010-2011

Echo - An Unforgettable Elephant

A celebration of the life and legacy of Echo, the world's most famous elephant, who was born in 1945 and died in 2009, and who Natural World followed for the last 20 years of her life.

The timing of Echo's death could not be worse. The wise old matriarch had guided her family for half a century, but the cruellest drought in living memory devastated her home under the shadow of Kilimanjaro. Will her 38-strong band of relatives and descendants overcome the loss of their leader, hunger and poachers to survive?


WED 00:30 Heart vs Mind: What Makes Us Human? (b01kpvj1)
The heart is the most symbolic organ of the human body. Throughout history it has been seen as the site of our emotions, the very centre of our being. But modern medicine has come to see the heart as just a pump; a brilliant pump, but nothing more. And we see ourselves as ruled by our heads and not our hearts.

In this documentary, filmmaker David Malone asks whether we are right to take this view. He explores the heart's conflicting histories as an emotional symbol and a physical organ, and investigates what the latest science is learning about its structures, its capacities and its role. In the age-old battle of hearts and minds, will these new discoveries alter the balance and allow the heart to reclaim something of its traditional place at the centre of our humanity?


WED 01:30 Seven Ages of Britain (b00qn322)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


WED 02:30 Ben Building: Mussolini, Monuments and Modernism (b07d7nj9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 02 JUNE 2016

THU 19:00 World News Today (b07d7gh1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b07d7sdm)
Steve Wright presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 19 November 1981. Includes appearances by Modern Romance, The Pretenders, Fun Boy Three, ABC, Trevor Walters, Julio Iglesias, Diana Ross, Soft Cell and Zoo.


THU 20:00 A Timewatch Guide (b06z59g7)
Series 2

Stonehenge

Using 70 years of BBC history archive film, Professor Alice Roberts uncovers how the iconic ancient monument of Stonehenge has been interpreted, argued over and debated by some of Britain's leading historians and archaeologists. She reveals how new discoveries would discredit old theories, how astronomers and geologists became involved in the story and why, even after centuries of study, there's still no definitive answer to the mystery of Stonehenge.


THU 21:00 Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British (b07d7sdp)
The Flat

If modern Britain lives in a terrace house and loves a cottage, it cannot make its mind up about the high-rise flat. Is the skyscraper a blot on the landscape, or the answer to the national housing crisis?

For Dan Cruickshank, the idea of living high above the city streets really is the future once again. 21st-century London is the site of an extraordinary building boom. Hundreds of residential high-rise towers are being built at record speed, many hugely controversial, as private developers cotton on to what social housing idealists realised 60 years ago.

Dan is in Bow in east London, charting the extraordinary history of one estate - the Lincoln. Designed in 1960 for the London County Council by a young idealistic architect, the 19-storey Lincoln was once the tallest residential building in London. Inside every flat were the latest space-age gadgets - a lift, a shower and a fitted kitchen. But the dream turned sour. The Lincoln became notorious for drugs and violence. There was even a brutal murder. It was the same all over Britain - the flat was a byword for deprivation and social exclusion. But then, just as everything looked lost, the Lincoln was saved and with, perhaps, the hopes of an entire generation for that most precious of things - a home. For Dan, as perhaps for Britain, 'the only way is up'.


THU 22:00 Going Forward (b07d7sdr)
Episode 3

One family, three days, countless events. Welcome to the Wilde family, Kim, Dave, sister Jackie, kids, dog (Carpet), and their ailing mum. Kim and Dave are the sandwich generation couple who've put their lives on hold for the sake of others. She's a care worker, he drives limos, they live outside London and life is all right, I suppose. Until Auntie Jackie has an idea.

Son Ryan's decision to return home to save cash looks premature, as the family's fortunes pick up following more grim news from the hospital. Money worries lifted, Kim and Dave's new freedom is somewhat undermined by developments at work, which see Dave engaged in a unique dirty protest and Kim taking on the Buccaneer 2000 empire.

A face from the past and talk of a spin class do little to calm things down, as a patient provides an unwelcome farewell gift to send Kim on her way to an uncertain future.

Back home, Ryan's half-baked chicken alaska sets the scene for a showdown as Kim and Jackie's long-brewing collision course finally ends in fireworks. Insults traded, it's back to dirty nappies, dog sick and the much-discussed job in Iraq.


THU 22:30 A Very British Airline (b046sby4)
Episode 2

For many years London to New York has been the most glamorous and profitable route in BA's long-haul network. This was the route made famous by Concorde, and even today BA's JFK terminal caters for more of the rich and famous than anywhere else.

This looks at the heart of BA's New York operations to discover what it takes to keep the 28 flights a day running smoothly on this all-important route, even as the worst winter on record causes cancellations and delays.

At the other extreme, BA is opening a new route to the Chinese city of Chengdu. China is a key new market, but BA is well behind its rivals and having to learn fast how to cope with the unique challenges of operating in mainland China.

Back at Heathrow, the cabin crew trainees reach the moment of truth. Will they all make it through the course or will some of them learn the hard way that they aren't quite what BA considers the right stuff?


THU 23:30 Francesco's Venice (b0078ssj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


THU 00:30 Top of the Pops (b07d7sdm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:05 Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10 (b01nwfxs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:40 on Saturday]


THU 02:35 Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British (b07d7sdp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 03 JUNE 2016

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b07d7gh6)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b07dxty1)
Mike Read presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 26 November 1981. Includes appearances by Kim Wilde, Jets, Toyah, Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, Cliff Richard, Ultravox, and Queen & David Bowie.


FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b07d7t0g)
Leonard Sachs presents an edition of the old-time music hall programme, filmed in 1974 from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds. Guests include Roy Castle, Jean Bayless, Peter Wallis, Los Aguenitos and members of the Players Theatre.


FRI 20:45 Sounds of the Sixties (b008pfhf)
Reversions

1964-6 The Beat Room

Featuring vintage performances from Tom Jones, the Kinks and the Moody Blues.


FRI 20:55 Pop Go the Sixties (b00cw0pf)
Series 2

Procol Harum

A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum was one of the 1960s' most popular and most-played songs. It's performed here by the group who first recorded it, on Top of the Pops in 1967.


FRI 21:00 UK's Best Part-Time Band (b07d9tr5)
Nations

Comedian Rhod Gilbert and Ultravox frontman Midge Ure set off on an epic road trip across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to discover the UK's best part-time band.

From across the UK, more than 1,200 bands have entered the competition, playing rock to reggae, ska to skiffle, bhangra to blues and everything in between. Leading double lives, by day they might be doctors, window cleaners or waiters, but at night they shed their work clothes, pick up a guitar and channel their inner rock god. What binds them all? An incredible passion for music and an escape from the nine-to-five grind.

This is no ordinary talent show - this is a rock 'n' roll documentary following Rhod and Midge on tour, visiting bands playing in rehearsal spaces, pubs, barns and bedrooms.

At the end of the road trip, five acts are selected for a regional heat in Belfast, where they compete for a place in the grand final.


FRI 22:00 The Highwaymen: Friends Till the End (b07dnvdt)
Frequently referred to as 'the Mount Rushmore of country music, The Highwaymen - Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson - were American country music's first bona-fide supergroup. Between 1985 and 1995, when times were hard for country legends as country radio chased youth and the pop market, these four icons banded together, made three albums, and toured the world performing their greatest songs and the ones they'd recorded together while extending their mutual admiration for one another.

The film explores those years and the work they recorded together and features vintage performances, rare behind-the-scenes footage of life on the road and in the studio with producer Don Was, and new interviews with Nelson, Kristofferson, family members Jessi Colter (country singer and Jennings's wife), Annie Nelson, Lisa Kristofferson and John Carter Cash, band members Reggie Young (guitarist) of The Memphis Boys, Mickey Raphael (harmonica player) and Robby Turner (pedal steel guitarist) and managers Mark Rothbaum and Lou Robin.

The film examines how their towering individual personas and mutual friendships meshed to form the group's collective artistry, their success buttressed by the love and support they gave to each other.


FRI 22:55 The Highwaymen Live (b07dpspl)
A previously unreleased full-length concert film of country music's first bona-fide supergroup - Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson - recorded live at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York, on 14 March 1990. Featuring many of the classics they recorded together and the greatest songs they recorded in their solo careers, including Highwayman, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Folsom Prison Blues, Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, Always On My Mind, Me and Bobby McGee, Desperados Waiting for a Train, Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way, Silver Stallion and many more.


FRI 00:55 Top of the Pops (b07dxty1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 01:30 UK's Best Part-Time Band (b07d9tr5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:35 The Highwaymen: Friends Till the End (b07dnvdt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]




LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)

A Timewatch Guide 20:00 THU (b06z59g7)

A Very British Airline 22:30 THU (b046sby4)

Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint 22:30 WED (b06714yz)

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend 22:40 SAT (b07dk8j5)

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend 21:00 SUN (b07dpv33)

Ballrooms and Ballerinas: Dance at the BBC 20:00 SUN (b06sg7zj)

Ballrooms and Ballerinas: Dance at the BBC 03:00 SUN (b06sg7zj)

Ben Building: Mussolini, Monuments and Modernism 21:00 WED (b07d7nj9)

Ben Building: Mussolini, Monuments and Modernism 02:30 WED (b07d7nj9)

Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups 22:00 SUN (b05q472d)

Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups 00:15 MON (b05q472d)

Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War 01:15 MON (b01c301b)

Catch Me if You Can 22:00 MON (b0074g3y)

Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons Side by Side: The Interview 23:00 SUN (b07dpfmg)

Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British 20:00 MON (b07ckwvx)

Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British 21:00 THU (b07d7sdp)

Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British 02:35 THU (b07d7sdp)

Francesco's Venice 19:00 SAT (b0078ssj)

Francesco's Venice 23:30 THU (b0078ssj)

Going Forward 22:00 THU (b07d7sdr)

Going Going Gone: Nick Broomfield's Disappearing Britain 02:00 SUN (b07chym0)

Heart vs Mind: What Makes Us Human? 00:30 WED (b01kpvj1)

Hidden Killers 20:00 SAT (b07chyly)

Hidden Killers 20:00 WED (b03l7nl8)

Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails 00:00 TUE (b00drtpj)

Mozart Uncovered 19:45 SUN (b07dwrgr)

Natural World 23:00 TUE (b00xxf9f)

Natural World 23:30 WED (b00tcf7z)

Playing Beethoven's Fifth 19:00 SUN (b07dprl0)

Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10 23:40 SAT (b01nwfxs)

Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10 01:05 THU (b01nwfxs)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:55 FRI (b00cw0pf)

Pugin: God's Own Architect 02:00 TUE (b01b1z45)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 19:30 TUE (b00dtp4b)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 19:30 WED (b00dwflf)

Revolution and Romance: Musical Masters of the 19th Century 21:00 TUE (b07d9rwv)

Revolution and Romance: Musical Masters of the 19th Century 03:00 TUE (b07d9rwv)

Seven Ages of Britain 22:00 TUE (b00qn322)

Seven Ages of Britain 01:30 WED (b00qn322)

Sounds of the Eighties 03:25 SAT (b0074sjk)

Sounds of the Sixties 20:45 FRI (b008pfhf)

Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather 21:00 MON (b07d7mqg)

Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather 02:45 MON (b07d7mqg)

Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather 20:00 TUE (b07d7mqg)

Tales from the Tour Bus: Rock 'n' Roll on the Road 01:10 SAT (b05rjc9c)

The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour 01:00 TUE (b04mgxxx)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 19:30 MON (b06ynxk8)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 02:15 MON (b06ynxk8)

The Disappearance 21:00 SAT (b05rd3lm)

The Disappearance 21:55 SAT (b05rd3lp)

The Good Old Days 20:00 FRI (b07d7t0g)

The Highwaymen Live 22:55 FRI (b07dpspl)

The Highwaymen: Friends Till the End 22:00 FRI (b07dnvdt)

The Highwaymen: Friends Till the End 02:35 FRI (b07dnvdt)

The Last Journey of the Magna Carta King 23:30 SUN (b052hrdd)

Top of the Pops 02:10 SAT (b07ckwvv)

Top of the Pops 02:45 SAT (b07cl0cn)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b07d7sdm)

Top of the Pops 00:30 THU (b07d7sdm)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b07dxty1)

Top of the Pops 00:55 FRI (b07dxty1)

UK's Best Part-Time Band 21:00 FRI (b07d9tr5)

UK's Best Part-Time Band 01:30 FRI (b07d9tr5)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b07d7gg2)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b07d7ggh)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b07d7ggv)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b07d7gh1)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b07d7gh6)

World War II: 1945 and the Wheelchair President 00:30 SUN (b05vlzsn)